Good afternoon.

I want to begin by saying that our thoughts are with the people of Hay River who are facing flood risks alongside a pandemic.

We appreciate the work everyone is doing on the frontlines to keep people safe from the flood, and making sure good public health practices are followed as much as possible as the response unfolds.

And I urge everyone to be kind to each other. Everyone is under a lot of stress. Making sure we’re all helping out and taking care of each other can go a long way in helping us stay strong emotionally and mentally as emergency response continues.

We are through yet another week and all indications say we have remained successful in containing the spread of COVID-19 in our territory.

I am pleased to say that we have also seen a rise in testing since expanding our clinical criteria – which is exactly what we wanted.

We saw 147 tests collected between April 27 and May 1^st – the first full work week since announcing our expanded criteria. Compare that to 87 collected from April 20 - April 24. That’s a 59% increase – and we hope that trend continues as we move forward.

I am pleased to say that we’re on the homestretch in developing our plan to emerge from our current levels of restrictions.

These next days will be about preparing for these next steps.

We are finalizing the public presentation of the plan so residents see a clear path forward for gradually, safely emerging from these public health measures – and how it will affect their lives.

And we are working with our partners to develop guidance for businesses and organizations so they can understand and implement the requirements they will need to meet to take advantage of eased measures in the near future. 

I am excited to share these details with you as soon as I can.

And as I do each week, I want to thank NWT residents for the extraordinary commitment they’ve demonstrated to fighting back against COVID-19. As of today, we’ve contained this together.

And together, we will continue to rise to the challenge.

Thank you.